Boys golf: Fairview, Heuston finish strong at 5A state

Knights take sixth as a team

Fairview's Ryder Heuston watches his drive during the second day of the Class 5A state tournament. (Dan Mohrmann / CHSAANow.com)

COLORADO SPRINGS - Sometimes stumbling is necessary before success can happen. That was the lesson the Fairview boys golf team came away with at the conclusion of the 2018 Class 5A boys state golf tournament.

From a team standpoint, the Knights tied for the third best score of Tuesday's final round at the Colorado Springs Country Club. They went 14-over as a team and climbed one spot from their finish on Monday. Overall they finished sixth, rebounding after what felt like a difficult first round.

"Today was a fresh day," coach John Zerwin said. "We could start over. We could show everybody what we could do today and it was more hitting a reset than anything."

Fossil Ridge's Dillon Stewart won the individual championship and the Sabercats came away with the team title, the first in program history.

Ryder Heuston grabbed his second-straight top-10 finish at the event, shooting a three-over-par-74 to boost him from 12th place at the start of the day to a tie for seventh. But he had his eyes on improving on his sixth-place finish from a year ago.

He bogeyed two of his first four holes, then settled into a rhythm and made pars for the next six holes. He made his first birdie of the day on the par-5 11th hole. At that point he was making up ground and improving his position on the leaderboard.

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"What I really needed to do was get into the top-10," Heuston said. "I tied for sixth last year and I really wanted to improve on that. First and foremost you have to make it inside the top-10 and make all-state, then I wanted to improve on my position from last year."

He made back to back bogeys on 14 and 15, but knew he was in a solid spot heading into the 18th hole, a drivable par-4.

"I was on the 18th tee box, and was right around that six or seven mark," he said. "I knew if I did something amazing, get an eagle or a birdie I might squeak into the top-five. I went over the green, didn't hit a great chip and made par. I got inside the top-10, I did what I needed to do, I just didn't execute down the stretch."

Much like his teammates, he was much better on the second day of the tournament. William Chadwick shot a 76, two strokes better than his first round. Brett Reamon shaved four strokes off Monday's 82.

But the highlight for Fairview had to be senior Noah Vrencur who shot 77. He went 15 strokes higher than that on Monday.

Zerwin was pleased with the overall effort from his team in knocking strokes off their score and learning what it's like to play in a pressure situation while doing it.

"For the other guys except for Ryder, this is the biggest tournament they've played in," he said. "Sometimes the moment gets a little too big so sometimes you need to get there and experience that before you can do well in that moment. I think it was good for them to get a taste of it, to have expectations and to not live up to those expectations."

Legacy's Grant Hoos had the best round of the day for the Lightning, shooting a 76 to close out the tournament in 23rd place. The Lightning finished 12th as a team.

Boulder's Grant Alqatami made three birdies in his final round. He shot 80 on Tuesday to finish 32nd overall.

Broomfield's Ryan Jenson made two birdies of his own on Tuesday. His 85 put him in a tie for 64th.

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